Xiaomi may be little known outside China, but the fast-growing smartphone maker is at the forefront of a new wave of Asian brands challenging the dominance of Apple and Samsung with high-spec, low-price phones.

With big brands defending their dominance and the fashion press wary of taking a gamble, new designers sometimes struggled to be heard in Milan but Vogue Italia's editor told AFP that is all in the past.

The recession ravaging Spain's economy has not held back Amancio Ortega, a railwayman's son from Galicia, who has just leaped to third place in Forbes magazine's listing of the richest people in the world.